Japan: Co-op sold banned spinach

A Tokyo-based cooperative has delivered spinach grown in the town of Tako, Chiba Prefecture, to consumers in three eastern prefectures despite a government ban on shipments due to concerns about radiation, the Chiba Prefectural Government said Thursday.

Some of the 74 lots of Tako-grown spinach – home-delivered by Pal System Consumers Cooperative Union to 70 households in Gunma, Saitama and Chiba prefectures – had already been consumed, it said.

A dealer in the town of Shibayama, which also has vegetable fields in Tako, shipped the spinach in question as part of 380 lots on April 10 and has said it did not know of the shipment ban, prompting the local government to issue a verbal warning, it said.